Blinding Wounds
by HiroAkemi
Summary: I remember how the sun shone against your pale flesh the very first time I saw you. I never knew what it meant to fall in love until that moment. My mouth went dry making it hard to swallow. You were so sensual without any effort. You dripped of charisma, your laughter infectious. When you turned and looked me in the eyes I knew my life would never be the same again. /Short story


Incredibly short story I wrote based on a dream I had. Naruto x Sasuke, I drew a photo once upon a time for this. Hiro-akemi deviant art art/Wounds-that-blind-212742221

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the characters obviously.

* * *

**_"Blinding wounds"_**

_Thoughts_

Words

"Speech"

* * *

**Written to:  
Flight Facilities: Clair De Lune, Lana Del Ray: Young and Beautiful, Kimbra: Old flame**

_"Still dancing on the aftertaste_  
_I remember gold days_  
_Wrapped up in the warmth we made"_

* * *

All I could hear was a distant ringing in my ears, the things around me nothing more than dimmed blurs of distant sound. Voices, there were voices; they were saying something but I could not hear them well and so I strained. I could not recall the events that had taken place earlier the day, it felt like I had a bad run in with the bottom of a bottle but then again I never was one with good recall abilities. I remember… the colour red. Just the colour red. The fuzziness in my mind began to make my head hurt as I tried to recall events and strain to listen to these voices speaking nearby. I clenched my teeth, my face scrunched I was sure as I concentrated harder.

"Will he be alright Doctor?"

"Yes. He will survive; the explosion didn't do much physical damage, but…" The doctor had paused in his words as if trying to figure out what to say next.

"He… He has become blind as a result."

Things went silent and for a moment I felt like there was a pair of eyes boring into my flesh. Who were they talking about? Surely it was some poor soldier caught between crossfire and deep down I hoped it was no one I knew. I continued to lay there pretending to be sleep as I strained my ears to listen harder as their voices dropped an octave.

"There is no possibility of his eye sight coming back. The blast completely scorched his retinas."

I couldn't help but pity the poor soul, to be unable to see the beauty in life; wasn't that a fate worse than death? I had always been an optimist so even in the throngs of war I still found beauty in the world when all others could see were the violent love makings of bullets and death.

"After today he can no longer serve in this army. He will be discharged and I've been informed that he will be taking the next flight back home, he is scheduled to depart on Friday. I am very sorry."

There was a long pause and I held my breath as I waited for them to slip with the soldier's name.

"I, understand doctor. I… I will tell Naruto."

The breath I was holding seemed to be nothing to me, I wasn't blind, there was no way. I was perfectly fine. I began to sit up and the ache that lay dormant as I slumbered pulled at my muscles, I could not recall how I got these aches but if what I heard was true… I lifted my hand to my face pressing the palm of my hand against my closed eye. I sat there for a moment debating on whether I should open my eyes or not, but I was afraid. Afraid that if I did I would not see and their words would be true, but not only because of that. I was afraid I would cry. A man is never supposed to cry but deep in my chest my heart pumped with a slow numbness, a sting clinging to my nose as it flared with my emotional outbreak.

I am strong; I told myself in my head, I am not afraid. I let my hand drop to the covers that gathered at my waist my hands fisting in the fabric. I was not afraid. "I am not afraid…" I whispered to myself as I opened my eyes. I waited for my sight to adjust just as I always had when I just woke up, I was in denial. I waited there for minutes before I felt someone by my side.

"Naruto, Naruto are you alright?"

The voice, I recognized it, my head turning to the direction it came from. I knew who it was and so desperately I wanted to see, I wanted to see and make sure, to know it was him.

"Sasuke… "

My voice betrayed me as I reached out to him, I was strong, I am strong I kept telling myself over and over again.

"Sasuke… I cannot see."

Perhaps it was the way that he held my hand that made the tears I held at bay let loose, or perhaps it was the fact that I knew I would never be able to see his face again that did it. Whichever reason it was I knew that after today I would never be able to see and deep inside I could feel my heart breaking.

"I cannot see… Sasuke I cannot see! Why can't I see!?"

I began to sob more violently as I held tightly to his hand; I wanted to see him, to see his hand. To see the dark pools of his eyes but I couldn't and in my desperation and realization I clung to him like a child to his mother. Over and over I begged for him to make things better, to fix me, to help me and over and over he only said I'm sorry. I felt only agony, only despair, only pain; I felt no longer as if I was me but as if I was someone else and that this was not my world but someone else's.

"I can't see… I can't see you…"

I sobbed so hard for so long, my face covered by hot tears, tears I could not see but only feel. What did I do to deserve this? Was the last thing I remember thinking before my body gave out from the stress I had caused through my panic; I could only remember feeling my head against his chest and the soothing sound of his apologies as I drifted off into a white void.

When I awoke I found myself on a plane well on my way home. The world was so dark around me; my hands cold, numb. I felt a wave of sickness wash over me and the urge to sob stung my nose again. The last of my energy went into suppressing what cries I wanted to let out. I instead passed a deep and heavy sigh, my hands rubbing nervously at my thighs as I thought about the news I had gotten; over knowing that I would be going home, but most of all I mourned the loss of warmth.

I made it home safely. My mother having took care of me in the days of my return. Eventually life returned to normal for me, well mostly normal. I still had to get used to my new… condition. To this day I have never felt the warmth I had back when he held me so tenderly, they told me my nerves were mostly dead but I felt it then. I did. My heart still mourns the loss today.

I never _saw_ him again… that dark eyed beauty. We would never be reunited.

Two months after I returned home I got a letter from his father. I sat on the porch swing while my mother read it to me. Her hand muffling her cries as she tried to be strong reading it to me. He died in an air strike during a routine mission.

He would have turned twenty two that year.

* * *

Naruto's fingers caressed the worn surface of metal. The engravings that used to be there long since worn from his tender fingering; idly caressing his lost loves last token. Naruto's heart beat slowly, a dull ache throbbing somewhere deep. His hand lifted to rest upon his chest as he gave a soft and rather heart breaking smile, fingers fisting around the worn metal.

"It's been 60 years… I… I wish I could have told you that I loved you."

_Sasuke…_ Naruto knelt by the marble wall, his head bowed as he let go of a silent sob and prayer. He placed the tags on the floor at the base of the wall and then stood. A young woman's arm slinking through his; she gave him an encouraging smile even though he could never see it. His hand patted her lightly though as if to affirm he saw even though she knew he didn't.

"Let's go grandpa, Mother is waiting..." He smiled faintly. "You're quite right." He patted her hand one more time and with a sullen smile he turned with her and slowly walked away from the marble wall. The tags Sasuke afforded him left at the memorial of his lost love and those he had served with. Naruto died that night peacefully in his sleep at the age of 83.


End file.
